The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the Identifying Outputs of Generative Adversarial Networks (IOGAN) Act (S.2904) would cost $6 million between 2020 and 2025. […]
As the COVID-19 pandemic made it increasingly difficult for veterans to access in-person healthcare services, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) quickly scaled its existing telehealth capabilities to accommodate more patients. Now, per several VA officials, the agency is planning to continue investments in and accessibility to its virtual health services even after the pandemic winds down. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has updated its Insider Threat Program (ITP) to expand the program’s scope to include those with past or current access to DHS facilities, information, equipment, networks, or systems. […]
At the Department of Education, workforce training and collaboration with other Federal agencies and academic stakeholders are helping the agency stay cybersecure, according to CIO Jason Gray. […]
The Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is hosting a site dedicated to compiling election security resource amid the COVID-19 pandemic with help from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) is seeking information to stand up a Common Operating Platform (COP) within its Office of Mission Assurance (OMA), which responds to emergencies and crises. […]
NASA is taking a “risk-based, phased, and methodical” approach to reopening its offices, with the health and safety of its workforce and continuing telework as top priorities, according to the agency’s framework for returning to on-site work. […]
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has delivered two congressionally-requested reports on the agency’s consumer privacy work as part of the fiscal year 2020 spending bill that funds FTC and other agencies. The first report details the way FTC uses its authorities to protect consumer privacy and security and to “deter unfair and deceptive conduct.” The […]
In the past three months, Federal IT has emerged as the indispensable lifeline for delivery of government services to citizens in times of turmoil. As the nation finds its new footing on the road to recovery, MeriTalk is chronicling the untold stories of how Federal IT is paving the way. In the latest chapter of CIO Crossroads, we examine the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). […]
The Senate voted by voice yesterday to confirm academic Sethuraman Panchanathan to be the next director of the National Science Foundation (NSF). […]
The unique ability of government IT operations to ensure the delivery of vital services to citizens has formed the backbone of the larger Federal pandemic response. MeriTalk is chronicling the untold stories of that effort in our CIO Crossroads series. Please join us for our latest chapter: Department of Transportation. […]
“One of the things that we are trying to do with our indictments, and that we’ve been trying to do for a number of years, is to establish norms of nation-state behavior in cyberspace,” said John Demers, the Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the Department of Justice. […]
In selecting which exempt organization returns to examine, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) should start using data and document the measurable objectives in using it to reduce errors and incomplete procedures. […]
The Department of Commerce announced a rule to allow American companies to participate in international standards setting bodies, an area previously vacated by the United States to discourage commercial cooperation with the Chinese company Huawei. […]
Cost-of-Living-Adjustments (COLAs) from Federal retirement programs, such as Social Security are based on consumer price indexes (CPI) produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), however, the agency hasn’t evaluated whether its data accurately reflects what certain groups pay, purchase, and shop. […]
While the mass shift to telework amid the COVID-19 pandemic caught some organizations off-guard, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) had already practiced with a full telework workforce just weeks before the maximize telework order came. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released Open Security Controls Assessment Language (OSCAL) 1.0.0 Milestone 3, a key step toward finalizing the full initial release of OSCAL v1. […]
It’s hard to fathom the number of critical government processes that have had to evolve – very quickly – to meet the needs of the American people during the COVID-19 pandemic. And if this crisis has a silver lining, it’s the accelerated modernization and innovation being born out of it. MeriTalk is surfacing the untold stories – and lessons – of those efforts. In the latest installment of CIO Crossroads, we turn to the General Services Administration (GSA). […]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai asked members of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee for $65 million to implement the Broadband DATA Act, a law signed in March to improve the accuracy of broadband deployment maps. […]
The Social Security Administration (SSA) is seeking information to establish a Customer Identity Credential and Access Management (ICAM) Solution to authenticate external users. […]
The Department of Energy (DoE) kicked off Phase 1 of its agency reopening plan on June 1 as part of a slow but steady approach to reopening its offices. […]
While the Census Bureau was already adjusting to embracing new tech for the 2020 Census, the COVID-19 pandemic has raised new concerns and pushed the agency to increase its focus on IT, data, and cybersecurity matters to properly manage risks.
Per a June 9 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Census Bureau must closely manage its tech to ensure that the pandemic and other delays don’t impact the quality of its 2020 Census results.
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House Government Operations Subcommittee Chairman Gerry Connolly, D-Va., is asking major Federal agency inspectors general to examine agency facility re-opening plans in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, saying that he aims to “ensure that Administration officials are cautious and prudent when requiring federal employees and contractors to return to federal office buildings.” […]
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has begun considering sending at least some employees back to work at their offices under Phase 1 of a longer term re-opening plan, but most employees will remain teleworking for at least the next month. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it is working to re-open agency offices in accordance with Phase 1 of the White House’s Opening Up America Again plan, although office re-opening schedules are expected to vary based on a number of factors. […]
As some Federal offices begin looking ahead toward reopening when the COVID-19 pandemic slows, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is still largely pushing for maximum telework despite its rolling plan to reopen, an agency spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk. […]
A small number of Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff began to return to work at the agency’s offices on June 15 in the first phase of a three-part re-opening plan, according to an NRC spokesperson. […]
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is continuing to dispute a unanimous decision in April by the Federal Communications Commission to grant Ligado access to a spectrum band adjacent to a band used by the Defense Department for Global Positioning System. […]
The Department of State has been monitoring local conditions in the D.C.-metro area during the Coronavirus pandemic, with the expectation of entering Phase I of Diplomacy Strong today. […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded two contracts on June 15 to move forward with implementation of their cloud adoption and customer experience Centers of Excellence (CoE). […]